Brix meter

I bought a brix meter to measure the sugar content of plants. It came with a handy chart saying what a high-low sugar content should be in the leaves of common vegetables. I also have a press to squeeze leaf juice onto the meter.

I can't afford to buy lots of soil amendments. And I don't have enough compost and mulch to be as liberal as I would like. Using the brix meter I can tell if immature vegetables are struggling or not. If they are struggling I can add more soil amendments to part of the row and tell if they make a difference, even while the plants are in their vegetative state and don't show much difference to the naked eye.

would you mind elaborating a bit on how it works, where you got it and how much it cost? I haven't researched them at all, but we're growing a bunch of sorghum this coming year and I'd LOVE to have one of these... unless it's the kind that you look through like a refractometer, I'm red-green colorblind and have a little issue with blue-purple as well so not very sure how well I could use one haha...

Of course my girlfriend isn't colorblind, so I could just make that her job

Ben - I'd like to hear more about this too. This is a tool I've been considering adding for my "simple tests" around the homestead.

See this thread: https://permies.com/t/31247/md/Building-permaculture-cred-simple-tests

Awesome.
I plan to buy one maybe next year when we have the money. Brix testing, in my opinion, is a very important pathway. For those selling, more nutrients=more money. For those eating, more nutrients=better health. High brix=high nutrients. And supposedly you can taste the difference.

Yahoo brix groups:
http://www.egroups.com/neo/groups/BrixTalk/info

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RBTI/info

A brix peer-testing group.
http://nutrientdenseproject.com/

Book: Intelligent Gardener
http://www.amazon.com/The-Intelligent-Gardener-Growing-Nutrient/dp/0865717184

M Foti wrote:would you mind elaborating a bit on how it works, where you got it and how much it cost? I haven't researched them at all, but we're growing a bunch of sorghum this coming year and I'd LOVE to have one of these... unless it's the kind that you look through like a refractometer, I'm red-green colorblind and have a little issue with blue-purple as well so not very sure how well I could use one haha...

Of course my girlfriend isn't colorblind, so I could just make that her job

I bought mine from a vendor at the Acres conference for $75. The vendor's name is Will Winter (grassfarmersupply.com). He also sold me this awesome juice press.




Loading it is similar to making a microscope slide. The brix meter has a fixed lower glass plate and an upper hinged transparent plastic plate. 1. Use a press to drip juice onto the lower glass plate. 2. Bring upper plastic plate into contact, which automatically squeezes the juice into a uniform film between the plates. 3. Look through the eyepiece and take a reading.



The image in the eyepiece looks similar to this. Colorblindness is probably not a problem.

I am curious, has anyone done a side-by-side-by-side comparison with one fruit or veggie conventional grown vs. organic vs. polyculture?

Seems like it could be a quick video demonstrating how the tool works plus which food has the highest nutrient value.

A.J.

A.J. Gentry wrote:I am curious, has anyone done a side-by-side-by-side comparison with one fruit or veggie conventional grown vs. organic vs. polyculture?

Seems like it could be a quick video demonstrating how the tool works plus which food has the highest nutrient value.

A.J.

That's a great idea. I know Geoff said in one of the videos that he had compared his stuff (organic polyculture) to conventional and his stuff was off-the-charts better.

Still learning in this space, myself.

Found this youtube video demonstration of using this tool to measure brix.



Filmed by the Pantry Paratus folks.

Interesting comment in here about a connection between sugar content (brix measurement) and mineral content.

Mariamne